Computer techniques developed by a Michigan State University criminology professor who had had her identity stolen will be used to help the FBI track down terrorists who use stolen or fabricated Social Security numbers and other fake documents.

Judith Collins created the process she calls “footprinting” at her computer lab at the university in East Lansing. It searches some 2,000 Web sites for tracks that thieves might have left online. She also developed mathematical models to predict how criminals might work and behave together.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission received 163,400 reports of identity theft...

The New York City Police Department is losing its top counterterrorism official, Frank Libutti, after a little more than a year on the job.

Libutti, a former Marine Corps general, has been nominated to serve as undersecretary for information analysis and infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security, according to a White House announcement made last month...

A “major strength” in pulling together the community and law enforcement, San Diego Police Chief David Bejarano is expected to be leaving the agency he has led for the past four years to assume command of the city’s field office of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Bejarano was appointed by President Bush last month. Although applying for the post was a difficult decision, Bejarano said, he could not turn down a presidential appointment...

Former Los Angeles police chief Bernard C. Parks — newly elected to a City Council seat — and Mayor James Hahn have said they will not let a contentious past stand in the way of working together to solve public issues in the future.

Parks, who as the LAPD’s chief was one of the city’s most prominent black officials, easily won election March 4 in the Eighth District in South Central Los Angeles, rolling up 78 percent of the vote. He resigned last year as chief after Hahn refused to back him for a second term...